World War III: NowWith Dissent-Guard™!

If we’ve learned anything about the GOP in the last few years, it’s this: When they all start saying the same thing at once, what we’re observing is a PR-style attempt to steamroll some idiotic notion into the mainstream. Thanks to Newt Gingrich, the man behind some of the party’s most disastrous initiatives, we’re now hearing the latest – and arguably most dangerous – notion yet: That the current crisis in the Middle East is in fact World War III.

This isn’t just labeling. The reasoning, in a nutshell, is that forcing this description down America’s gullet will free the Republicans to (a) pursue an all-out military bombardment of the Middle East and elsewhere, in hopes of fulfilling the psychotic Neocon vision that has already proved a spectacular failure in Iraq, (b) reduce all debate on military matters to a simple “us vs. them” equation and (c) suppress all domestic political dissent and preserve their now-tenuous grasp on the reins of power.

We will be treated to an escalating chorus of this “World War III” concept in the coming months, with lurid previews of the violent repression they have in mind. Anyone who questions this sick idea will be tarred as a traitor, and the party’s hand puppets at Fox News and elsewhere will fantasize aloud about rounding up and exterminating everyone who isn’t on the right side.

Amid all this jingoistic shrieking, I ask you to bear two things in mind. One: Gingrich and his frothing minions are wrong, just as they were wrong in Iraq. This isn’t World War III. It’s awful, but diplomacy and multilateral negotiations are still the only reasonable response. Two: If you want to survive and think having a Democracy in the U.S. is a good thing, it’s time to reject the Republicans in every race, in every state. They couldn’t have failed us more completely, and now they’re ready to kill us all to escape the blame. Let’s make November the beginning of our national return to sanity.